Barton Junior High School Principal Michelle Henry touted students' improved test scores in all subject areas during a report to the El Dorado School Board last Monday.
"We are celebrating growth at Barton this year," Henry said. "We improved everywhere this year, in both grade levels, in all subject areas, and we're just excited about it. It's 100% that our teachers and students worked very hard."
Ten percent more seventh-graders last year posted passing English scores in standardized tests than the previous class, while reading passes increased by 6%; science, by 5%; and math by 8%.
Last year's crop of eighth-graders saw 5% more students pass the English portion of state tests, while 15% more passed reading, 11% more passed science and 3% more passed math, according to data provided by Henry.
"For our ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) school index, what did that mean? That means we increased a letter grade," Henry said. "We raised our score quite a bit to move from a D to a C, so we're excited about that we're hoping that looks like a B next year when we get to report this."
She pointed to the district's professional learning communities (PLCs), where teachers work with others in their grade-level or topic of instruction to dive deeply into investigations of student success. Henry shared a video of some of Barton's math teachers discussing the best ways to get a concept across to students to demonstrate the PLCs, noting that the school's special education math teacher also attends.
"They do a lot of talk about the standards, what it means; vertical alignment from seventh to eighth, what that looks like; lots of changes in the standards this year ... So that's what Wednesdays look like at Barton in our teams," Henry said. "We're excited about the work they do every week. Really, they do it every day."
This year, the school is also working to improve student behavior in hopes that will drive achievement even higher.
In the 2022/23 school year, Barton and other schools in the El Dorado School District implemented new "behavior matrixes," each tailored to their school's theme and the age of their students. Henry said this year, students were tested on the rules.
"If they didn't make a certain score on that, or if they were absent – we did 100% of the students – we put them in an RTI (response to intervention) session on the rules, and the ones that didn't take it seriously, or the ones that, maybe they just really didn't know the rules, they realized, 'okay, I'm going to have to keep doing this until I learn the rules,'" Henry said, noting that all students have now passed the behavior quiz.
Additionally, Barton has started treating behavior interventions very similarly to academic interventions, she said, placing students in 30-minute extra class sessions focused on behavior, including how to treat their peers and adults.
"We're excited to see what that does on our campus. We feel like we've seen lots of improvement with student behavior, but we are working with the students that really seem to need a little more," Henry said.
But Barton does still make time for fun, she noted. Last year's Barton Gives Back fundraising drive raised $5,000, which will go toward helping students in need.
"That goes to just take care of students and staff in need, do Christmas and some different things like that all throughout the year, so we're excited to get to plan for that this year," Henry said.
The school produced "The Little Mermaid Jr" last year, and Henry advised board members to keep an eye out for Barton's upcoming announcement about this year's spring musical.
Barton students last year also had the opportunity to visit New York City, and this year, the Student Council is planning a trip to Boston, she said.